The Navy pulled out the guided-missile destroyer Kidd, with its two search and rescue helicopters, opting to rely on a pair of submarine-hunting aircraft from nearby land bases to scour the Indian Ocean for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The San Diego-based destroyer with a crew of 314 and its MH-60 Seahawk helicopters have searched a combined 15,000 square miles since March 8, when the Boeing 777 mysteriously vanished. No debris or wreckage related to the aircraft or the 239 missing passengers and crew has been found.

The Kremlin power play in Ukraine's strategic Crimea region escalated Sunday with Russian-backed authorities ordering Ukrainian army and navy units to surrender their weapons as an outraged international community warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he risks censure for violating Ukraine's sovereignty. The United States accused Moscow of reinforcing an estimated 6,000 naval and ground troops in Crimea with additional personnel and announced that Secretary of State John F. Kerry would fly to Kiev, Ukraine's capital, on Tuesday in a show of support for the beleaguered Ukrainian government.

The pilot of a military plane that crashed in a mountainous region of northern Nevada was killed in the accident, the Navy said Sunday. The plane, an F/A-18C Hornet on loan from the Marine Corps to the Navy for "Top Gun" pilot training, crashed Saturday afternoon east of the Naval Air Station in Fallon, Nev. The plane was a total loss, the Navy said. Rescue teams from the Navy and the Lander County, Nev., Sheriff's Office took hours to reach the site in a remote, rugged area Saturday.

SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Ukraine's acting president, Oleksandr Turchynov, fired his new navy commander on Sunday for “high treason” after the admiral pledged allegiance to pro-Russian forces in Crimea, a Ukrainian news agency reported. Earlier in the day, Adm. Denis Berezovsky appeared in public in Sevastopol in the company of Crimea's newly elected pro-Moscow premier, Sergei Aksenov, and pledged allegiance to his administration. “I, Denis Berezovsky, swear an oath of allegiance to the residents of the republic of Crimea,” Berezovsky said in televised remarks.

The Maersk Alabama, featured in the movie “Captain Phillips,” has left the Seychelles after authorities completed the investigation into the deaths of two Americans, one of whom was a former Navy SEAL. On Tuesday, two Americans were found dead in a cabin on the ship, berthed in Port of Victoria in the island nation of the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. Neither officials nor the company have said what happened. “Maersk Alabama was cleared to leave the Seychelles when the authorities completed their onboard investigation,” company spokesman Kevin N. Speers said in an e-mailed statement.

Two American security officers and former Navy SEALs have been found dead on board the Maersk Alabama, the cargo ship whose hijacking by Somali pirates inspired the film "Captain Phillips," Seychelles Island police said Wednesday. According to police , Jeffrey Reynolds and Mark Kennedy, both 44, were discovered dead by a colleague who went to check on Kennedy late Tuesday afternoon while the ship was moored in Port Victoria. No cause of death was given and an investigation is underway.

WASHINGTON - The Navy said Tuesday that instructors responsible for training sailors to operate nuclear reactors that power submarines and aircraft carriers may have cheated on qualification tests, the latest in a series of ethical and criminal misconduct cases roiling the Pentagon. The Navy suspended 30 senior enlisted sailors serving as instructors at the Navy base in Charleston, S.C., after a sailor seeking to qualify as an instructor alerted his superiors that he had been offered answers to a written test on reactor operations, senior Navy officers said.

WASHINGTON -- President Obama has nominated Navy Vice Adm. Michael S. Rogers, a 30-year Navy veteran, to head the National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command, officials said Thursday. If confirmed by the Senate, Rogers will take over an intelligence agency battered by leaks of classified documents from former contractor Edward Snowden about NSA surveillance and intelligence gathering programs at home and abroad. Rogers, a Chicago-area native who now commands Navy cyber operations, would replace Army Gen. Keith Alexander, who is retiring.

Two Marines killed in Afghanistan in an "insider" attack will be awarded the Navy Cross for bravery in a ceremony set for Saturday at Camp Pendleton. Staff Sgt. Sky Mote and Capt. Matthew Manoukian were killed when a uniformed Afghan police officer began spraying AK-47 gunfire at Marines from inside the grounds of a U.S. outpost. Before being mortally wounded, both Marines pressed a counter-attack, preventing other Marines from being killed or wounded, according to the Navy Cross citation.